The Jesuit Tradition

410 7. "We affirm the adjective 'Jesuit' no less strongly. This presupposes the authentic participation in our basic Jesuit identity and mission of any university calling itself Jesuit, or any university which operates ultimately under our responsibility. While we want to avoid any distortion of the nature of a university or any reduction of its mission to only one legitimate goal, the adjective 'Jesuit' nevertheless requires that the University act in harmony with the demands of the service of faith and promotion of justice found in Decree 4 of GC 32." A Jesuit university can and must discover in its own proper institutional forms and authentic purposes a specific and appropriate arena for the encounter with the faith which does justice. (click for larger picture)

411 8. "We applaud the many ways in which Jesuit universities have tried to apply this decree, both in the lives of students through outreach programs of mutual contact and service with the poor, and in the central teaching, research, and publication aims of the university. If it remains true that most Jesuit universities must, in various ways, strive to do even more in order to embody this mission of service to the faith and its concomitant promotion of justice, this only reflects the challenge all Jesuits face to find concrete and effective ways in which large and complex institutions can be guided by and to that justice which God himself so insistently calls for and enables. The task is possible; it has produced martyrs who have testified that 'an institution of higher learning and research can become an instrument of justice in the name of the Gospel.'" (click for larger picture)

** Xavier's department of theology is committed to this understanding of the Jesuit character of our educational ministry. This commitment is evident especially in the many theology courses that focus on the relationship between faith and justice, such as Faith and Justice, Contemporary Ethical Issues, Liberation Issues and Theology, Christian Health Care Ethics, and others.

Additional links of interest:

• For information about Xavier's programs in peace and justice and related student activities, click here.
• For information about Xavier's peace studies minor, click here.
• For Jesuit Superior General Peter-Hans Kolvenbach's lecture, "The Service of Faith and the Promotion of Justice in American Jesuit Higher Education" (Oct. 6, 2000), click here.